Seminario 4: Arquitectura Campos del Pensamiento | Prof. Dr.

Alberto Guillermo Ranea

MAP[au] 2014-15 | FAU | UNLP | Zaid, Ayman Safi

Pure Science, Applied Science, Technology, Engineering: An Attempt at Definitions

James K. Feibleman | Technology and Culture, Vol. 2, No. 4 (Autumn, 1961), pp. 305-317

When thinking about definitions and sequence of all of Pure Science, Applied Science, Technology and
Engineering; the set of phrases investigated by Feibleman as business of science, comparing it to
business of art, points of intersection are found, especially that processes from theory to application are
now more understood as Acts and Opinions where it was named before gradually as Facts to Theories
and Assumptions. One common aspect between both businesses is the aim to achieve public benefit,
although, art is still considered with a specialty of having a more side of personal and emotional
perception, and not literary measurable by same keys and factors used to evaluate science.

All work of investigation in any field is made in reference to the Knowledge available in an environment;
at specific time in specific location for a specific group. The approach for any creation, discovery or
invention is always driven by a need at a time. In the past, fire was needed for security, in other time it
was needed for industry and production. Once art was sought from ruling class as pure luxury, now it`s
produced and consumed as a natural element from and to all members of society, parts of it as basic
education is considered now a basic human right.

When thinking in arts and in architecture, we can also find the Theoretical Architect; the philosopher, the
top-notch academic and critic, the creative thinker, the Application architect; who is working on planning
the previously made theories and shaping them to life and function, or the planner working to draw a
theory in a master plan, and Technologist is the studio architect, who receives clients and supply
proposals for a specific architectural project. The engineer is the operational on-site architect or
construction worker.

Although, sometimes the separation could be made within process flow but not in personnel, as the
model of the mixture of all do exist; the pioneer architect and philosopher who create genuine ideas,
who also plan his ideas in order, form and function to be a Solution, and go further to exercise all his
results for a specific Product.

There are various interpretations for the best lifestyle of humans, its’ ceiling is the ideal limit. The ideal
limit is the best the imagination can reach, still physically it is unreachable, or, an applied way to put it in
practice is not found yet. Concepts like equality and social justice have been discussed long time ago, still
it is legendary and mythical.

There are different solutions directed to reach best style for habitats in an environment in exact place
and time. The methods and systems offered to practice the pervious solutions and to construct the
contemporary society are uncountable. That`s why when an architect furnishes a proposal, he provides
the opinion he developed for that project, he imagined his proposal as the best solution can be provided,
but for sure the group of all competitors of architects are together providing various proposals to solve
the same problem, which all can be correct. The choice goes only for one to get it alive.

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Seminario 4: Arquitectura Campos del Pensamiento | Prof. Dr. Alberto Guillermo Ranea
MAP[au] 2014-15 | FAU | UNLP | Zaid, Ayman Safi

If there is a competition to build a new city in a specific environment for specific people, and there is a
clear list of detailed guidelines offered as terms of reference; it will be predicted that proposals which
will be received will show a variety of ways to have the city. Sometimes even if two firms agree on equal
sets of references and concepts, programs and priorities, the results will differ. This also depends on how
a Technologist understand Applied Architecture, and how Application Architects understand Pure
Architecture. That’s to say a theory or school can be read and understood in different ways, also the
method of organizing the proposal itself has variations.

The process of design can open new doors for the architect, allowing him to contribute with his kind of
development. The designer can start -even if aware or unconscious- organizing his proposal in reference
to a set of knowledges he has learnt from others’ theories, the mixture he has with his own adventures
can lead him to create new way producing new Product.

If an architect does an exercise of redesigning a project he has done once -with a time gap between
both- he will provide another proposal, he may keep a rule he used to have and change another,
assuming in between both times his own knowledge has changed or developed. His set of basic rules
and priorities will be different. He will even be able to understand some criticism he received before and
would not be able to understand at that time, and he will be able to criticize his own work, even if not
objectively. Such a difference in production can be noticed for example in Le Corbusier earliest and latest
works, or in Gerhard Richter different exhibitions.